Here are Billiken/Billy Can words
& images gathered from the web by E.Z.Smith. There seem to
be conflicting thoughts about the origin and nature of Billiken/Billy
Can, as befits a god, folk hero, sports mascot, or toilet training
aid.

Secret Story Of Billiken

Mother of Billiken-boy-Billiken was originally created by
Ms. Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who patterned Billiken
after Joss, the Chinese god of "things as they ought to
be". Billiken was a cross between a god luck charm and cuddly
mascot. There is no description or photo of Ms. Florence Pretz
herself at the shelf in a library, no one could tell you if she
was beautiful young lady or she was little plumpy aunt at this
time... anyway she is a mother of Billiken boy.

Father of Billiken-boy -OK, now... who is a father of Billiken
boy? The Horsman Company manufactured Billiken dolls for 2 years
and sold more than 200,000 of them during the first 6 months
of production. So... this is the answer for above question...
E.I.Horsman Co. New York City. Early in 1909 Horsman entered
into agreement with Billiken Sales Co. for sole right to manufacture
and sell Billiken dolls in the U.S. and Canada. Billiken was
one of the first copyrighted dolls.

Babyhood of Billiken-boy- Here is quotation from one of encyclopedias;
elflike doll with molded and painted features and hair. Slanted
brows and eyes. pug nose, impish grin, large pointed ears. Beige
plush baby with jointed limbs. Brown thread claws on hands and
feet. Green and white labels sewn side of chest. In another encyclopedias;
having a head with a broad smile on the face, outstanding ears
and hair brought to a peak on top and having the baby clothed
in somewhat lose-fitting drapery, wide loose sleeves on arms
and legs in loose raiment. These were 12 inched tall and cost
$1.00 each. Billiken was also advertised by Butler Bros.; pink
or white velvet babies, 13 inches. You would be able to find
a few photos of Billiken dolls if you check in old encyclopedias.
They all looked quite differnent from of its recent appearance.
At least... Billiken-boy all used to wear some clothes.

Friends of Billiken-boy-Billiken dolls usualy enjoyed short
lives, since children loved them to death. As a result, they
are relatively scarce today and in great demand for grown-up
collectors. Many fad dolls disapper quickly, making them great
favorited with collectors year later. Billiken boys were distributed
through the world in boxes containing a sentimental poem that
read in part: "Be very sure that you are good and always
act just as you should: I love obedient girls and boys, I am
KING of all the toys".

Now Billiken-boy-Now Billiken-boy does not look like as he
used to be... now he is a chunky naked boy. His naughty-boy smile
might be one of reasons of his popularity.

Revival of "Billiken boom" in Japan

He is the "trigger"?! ...Mr. Kitahara "Tin
Toy collector" Do you know a TV programÅu Kantei-dan
Åvon channel 12? Mr. Teruhisa Kitahara is one of regular
performar as a connoisseur of this program. Mr. Kitahara is usually
introduced as a "world-wide-known toy-collector" by
the mass media. However, he should be considered as an "extraordinary
collector". He is far above other collectors because of
his strong interests in old things for not only toys, he collects
anything what is called "antique". You must see his
collection items at least 3 times. I, author, suggest as one
of "old thing lovers". A few years ago with the mass
media, Mr. Kitahara had informed about Billiken as "Billiken
is so rare item and it has worth". His voice directed nationwide
attention to Billiken. Kitahara stired up the interests of ordinary
people even if they were not involved in the collectors world.
As a fact... his report was the trigger of Billiken boom in Japan.

Where to meet Billiken-boy-Surely one is in Osaka, Japan.
Visit a place called "Tsu-ten-kaku". You also would
meet one in Ike-bukuro, Tokyo.

In Osaka. There is a place called "Tsu-ten-kaku"
in Osaka. Oops! unfortunetely, Author have not been there...
excuse me... but this is certain information. Billiken is enshrined
in "Tsu-ten-kaku". If you have been there and have
seen Billiken there, please let me know how he is doing.

Coming to Tokyo !

Namja Town in Ike-bukuro, Tokyo. This is just a report of
personaly favorit places.There is an amusement park which produced
by game maker "Namco" in Ike-bukuro, Tokyo. Namjya
Town. They celebrated 2nd anniversary in July,1997. Well, to
be frank... this is one of place you could meet Billiken-boy!
To tell the trouth, Namjya Town is the best spot for you to meet
Billiken actually! This one is real big boy. There is legend
of making wish to rub his feet... do you want to try that?

What is a Billiken?

I have been asked many times the questons What is a Billiken?
What
is it's Origin? Who made it?

Well I have read 3 things about where it came from. But first
I will tell you what it is. From what I have read (and correct
me if you have heard different) that the Billiken is a Good Luck
Symbol or Charm. It is made to bring St. Louis University Teams
Good Luck... That is what I have read.

How the Billiken became attached to the University remains a
matter of
debate. It seems to have happened sometime between 1910 and 1911
at the
height of Billikenmania.

St. Louis sports writer William O'Connor decided that SLU football
coach John Bender resembled the Billiken. Later, Charles McNamara
drew a cartoon of Bender in the form of a Billiken and posted
it in the window of a drugstore. The football team soon became
known as Bender's Billikens.

St. Louis Billikens

**THE BILLIKEN MAN Song, Words by E.Ray Goetz, Music by Melville,
J. Gideon As Introduced by the Miss Blanche Ring, Famous Singing
Comedienne. This song is published in 1909 by Special Arrangement
with the Billiken Co., Chicago, Owners of the Copyright of "Billiken"
five pages, on the back end paper there are nine extra Billiken
Verses.

One verse reads: Once a fat man went a-swimmin; from the surf
he tripped, He was flirtin, with some woman, When his new suit
ripped. As he sat down in the sand, He said "Billikens don't
stand", I'm a Billiken Man, a Billiken Man.

It's 'Billiken' to the Rescue

Put a coin in the donation box, rub the soles of his feet,
and make a wish. Billiken the god of fortune will make us all
happy.

Billiken who? The eponymous star of Sakamoto Junji's comedy,
Billiken--a squat, dumpy figure with a mischievous
smile and pointy head--is a character from real life. Created
by an American sculptor in 1908, the bizarre statue became quite
a hit in the teens and twenties in both the United States and
Japan, and a shrine was even built in his honor in Osaka's Shinsekai
district.

Billiken, however, has long since been forgotten. So, in some
ways, have old entertainment centers like Shinsekai which, like
New York's Coney Island or Tokyo's Asakusa, used to be the places
to go to enjoy the thrills of modernity, to celebrate the then
new fashions and fads like the movies and Billiken. However,
these entertainment areas now seem somewhat pathetic and run
down.

Starting with his delightful Knockout ("Dotsuitarunen,"
1989) and Checkmate ("Ote,&quot), 1991),
and continuing with Billiken, the Osaka-born Sakamoto
has continued to offer a slightly nostalgic but always enjoyable
portrait of the unique and irreverent culture of Shinsekai. In
Billiken, the existence of the region itself is
under threat as real estate developers propose to tear down Shinsekai
and its symbol, the Tsutenkaku Tower, as part of efforts to bring
the 2004 Olympics to Osaka.

As a defense, the head of Tsutenkaku (Kishibe Ittoku) tries
a couple of absurd strategies to revive the popularity of the
tower. He finally succeeds by reinstalling the forgotten statue
of Billiken. But Billiken causes a commotion by fulfilling even
the most ridiculous wishes.

To bring the wooden Billiken to life--to flesh out his character,
so to speak--Sakamoto cleverly has the eccentric actor Sugimoto
Tetta play the spirit of Billiken (he apparently prepared for
his role by sleeping with the Billiken statue every night).

The movie's most delightful points are when Sugimoto, invisible
to those outside of Tsutenkaku, scampers around Shinsekai trying
to grant everyone's wishes, from leading a favorite horse to
victory, to improving a man's sexual energy and even curing someone's
hemorrhoids.

Billiken/Sugimoto fights the conniving real estate developer
Ekage (Gan Ryutaro), a traitor to his native Shinsekai. He even
falls in love with a young teacher Tsukino (Yamaguchi Tomoko),
but it is when the fulfillment of these wishes begins to cause
problems and Billiken gets thrown out of Tsutenkaku that the
tight and well-paced script begins to unravel.

Billiken's eventual triumph is also a bit haphazard, which
only reinforces the impression that Sakamoto's portrait of Shinsekai
is best when it focuses on the area's communal ambiance, the
peculiar but honest humanity of its collection of characters.

Here being out-of-fashion is cool. And Japanese religion is
neither Zen nor the animism of Shinto, but the bonds of belief
in one's hometown, even if it is made up of petty gangsters,
homeless people, hucksters, and modern showmen like Sakamoto.

Billiken does not rise up to the level of Sakamoto's
previous work, but maybe re-encountering out-of-style idols like
Billiken can help us all be a little bit more happy.

Sugimoto Tetta as Billiken

Subject: a note about the Osaka Billiken
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004

Hello,
I was out on the internet looking for a little information about
the
Billiken and I came across your site. I happened to have been
to the
Osaka Tsutenkaku Tower a little over a week ago and can indeed
report
that Billiken is there, and seems to be a rather popular spot
for
Kodak moments with the tower visitors. Here's a link to a picture
and
a site in Japanese. I imagine that you probably can't read it.
(If you
can, well, all the better. I can make out some of it - enough
to get
the gist of what's going on.)
But it let's you see that the figure is there and last week he
looked
about as he does in the picture on this page.http://www.kuidaore-osaka.com/2top/deep/01_tanpou/0003/column01.html
Hope you can see it.
-jonathan c. isaacson
akita-ken, Japan

Darling pair of Billy Can and Billy Can't figures made of
chalkware. They look as tho someone has repainted them, so I
priced accordingly. You can see by the bottoms, tho, that they
ARE old. Great for collectors of chanberpots, Billikens or just
Good Luck in general. You can't see the lettering on the fronts
of the figs. very well, but it is incised into the chalk and
does say BILLYCAN (w/ a backwards n) on one and BILLYCAN'T on
the other. The reason is obvious, eh?

Whale Tooth Billiken from Alaska

Dear Mr Smith:

I'm writing to you because you have some information about
the billiken
that is circulating on the Internet. Yours is one of three primary
sites
that I found, and all have just part of the early information
on these
artifacts and collectibles. Unfortunately, there is no published
research available on Internet that I have been able to find,
and the
articles about them, including the one referred to in your information,
are unavailable to most people.

That first article appeared in the Alaska Sportsman, September
1960.
Dorothy Jean Ray, the author, wrote a longer and more detailed
piece
with illustrations for the Alaska Journal, Winter 1974. She is
disappointed that no one has used that piece as a reference,
from what
she has read and heard. She has asked me if there is any way
to get the
second article published on the Internet, and I told her that
I know of
none.

Dorothy Jean Ray, anthropologist and historian, is a recognized
authority on the history of the Iñupiat Eskimo people
of the Bering
Strait and on Eskimo art. She resides in Port Townsend, Washington,
where she and her late husband, Verne Ray, retired from his work
in
anthropology at the University of Washington.

She has an original copy of the 1974 magazine, and she has
agreed to
make a copy of her article in that, if you wish to have me send
it.

After speaking with her, I looked in her most recent publication
and
found most of the information about the billiken, including some
of the
same photos. This book is widely available in libraries and is
still in
print, if you are interested. See:
A Legacy of Arctic Art, University of Alaska Museum, University
of
Washington Press, Seattle, 1996. pp. 15, 132, 164-9, 177.

My interest in all this is as a result of my deceased wife's
work
centered on her paternal grandparents' decade teaching the Iñupiat
people of Kingegan village (Wales) in Alaska Territory. Mrs.
Ray was
Kathleen's mentor during the process of publishing two works
based on
letters, art, and papers in her family's Alaskana collection.
For
details about all this, see our Website:http://www.icewindow.com

Thank you for your time.

Verbeck Smith, Seattle
hvsmith@pobox.com

Reply:
Dear Verbeck
Congratulations , you've just become one of the authorities on
the subject of billikens. Since everything I know about them
has been gathered from the net and added to this page, then it
seems only fitting that your letter be added to the mix. If you
e-mail me a copy of Dorothy Jean Ray's article, I'll add it to
my page too.

Good hunting.

Subject: Billiken
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007

Hi, would you like another photo of a Billiken? My husband
bought me a concrete one many, many years ago at a junk store
in Callaway County Missouri. It made me laugh, so he thought
I needed it. He had one of those 'I'm a nice husband moments'.
Anyway, it's been traveling around MO from one move to the next
and has always been a yard ornament. A Navajo man who use to
visit us from time to time liked it, and would turn it towards
the East every time he came to visit. So, if you want another
photo of one, I'll go out and take a digital of it and email
it to you. It's currently painted red, but has been many colours
thru the years. Originally it was painted white.